Summary
The author of this book explores for the first time the American public opinion as the most important factor of the social life during the period when the Civil War of 1861-1865 was becoming imminent. The investigation of the struggle of opinions in the South as well as in the North is of peculiar interest.
The monograph contains a thorough analysis of the condition and evolution of the public opinion in the United States from the compromise of 1850, the Kansas civil war, John Brown`s rebellion, the formation of the "impending crisis", and up to the secession of the Southern states. A broad background of the social, economic and political history of the period is given.
The author shows how the hostility between fellow citizens of one and the same country was enflamed. She analyzes the propaganda weapons that were used. The whole complex of the facts taken from primary sources and especially the material concerning manipulation technologies gives an opportunity to have a closer look behind the curtain of politics that led the nation to the Civil War, and to form a deeper understanding of its reasons.
В оформлении обложки использованы материалы "Harper`s Weekly", 1860.
